The next day, Joan was taken to the walled cemetery in Rouen where two stands had been erected. On one stood her judges and numerous other important people. On the other, Joan was placed with Guillaume Erard, the preacher who was to give a sermon. The crowd was enormous and very excited, pushing and jostling to see the prisoner in chains, still dressed as a boy. Erard began his sermon using the text of the Gospel of St John: “The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine…“
Halfway through his sermon, he changed tack and, speaking in a loud voice, proclaimed: “Ah, France, you have been much abused, and Charles, who calls himself your King and ruler, has endorsed the words and deeds of this useless, infamous, and dishonoured woman, like the heretic and schismatic that
